Text World Theory and Keats' Poetry: The Cognitive Poetics of Desire, Dreams and Nightmares

Description

Text World Theory and Keats' Poetry applies advances in cognitive poetics and text world theory to four poems by the nineteenth century poet John Keats. It takes the existing text world theory as a starting point and draws on stylistics, literary theory, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and dream theories to explore reading poems in the light of their emphasis on states of desire, dreaming and nightmares. It accounts for the representation of these states and the ways in which they are likely to be processed, monitored and understood. Text World Theory and Keats' Poetry advances both the current field of cognitive stylistics but also analyses Keats in a way that offers new insights into his poetry. It is of interest to stylisticians and those in literary studies.

Marcello Giovanelli is Assistant Professor in English Education at the University of Nottingham, UK

One of the handful of Keats books this year, and an innovative one that draws on a range of theoretical influences that will be unfamiliar to most literary scholars. -- Adela Pinch * Studies in English Literature: 1500-1900 * Giovanelli's book is commendable for its accessible style: the research and analyses are thorough while still being concise ... This book is successful in its aim to account for Keats' use of dreams, desires and nightmares and their subsequent effect on the reading experience ... [Giovanelli's] revised model is useful in illustrating how Keats' poetry is experienced by the reader ... analyses of Keats' poems using his innovative Text World Theory dreams-desire approach illustrate the value of using Text World Theory as a means to confirm ... previous literary critical insights in a more systematic and holistic manner. * Language and Literature * The multidisciplinary approach modelled in this book is of special significance for the field of cognitive poetics, to which it makes its principal contribution ... Yet although this study is principally targeted towards stylisticians, it will be of great interest to scholars with interests in Romantic poetry, dream theory, and linguisticoriented literary analysis. * The Year's Work in English Studies * Giovanelli's account of the power of Keats' poetry is compelling, and his literary critical achievement is built on a rigorous development of Text World Theory. The book brings new life to Keats scholarship and offers a widely adaptable model for the literary linguistics of poetic visions. * Dr Joanna Gavins, Senior Lecturer in Literary Linguistics, University of Sheffield, UK *